Rep. Nancy Mace posted a list of former members of Congress whose offices were tied to more than $338,000 in taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlements, naming names, dollar amounts, and years, in what the South Carolina Republican called a long-overdue reckoning with a system that used public money to silence victims.
Mace shared the list on X on Monday afternoon, identifying nine cases spanning from 2007 to 2017 in which payments were made on behalf of sitting lawmakers or their offices. None of the individuals named are current members of Congress. The release followed subpoenas issued by Mace and other members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee seeking a full accounting of the payouts.
The numbers tell a story Congress never wanted the public to read. And the timing, amid a widening wave of misconduct allegations against sitting members of both parties, makes the disclosure harder to ignore.
As the Daily Mail reported, Mace identified former Rep. Rodney Alexander in connection with a $15,000 payment in 2007. The office of former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was tied to an $8,000 payment in 2009. Former Rep. Eric Massa appeared three times, with payouts of $85,000, $20,000, and $10,000 in 2010, totaling $115,000 for a single lawmaker. Massa resigned from office that year under what the report described as an "ethics cloud."
Former Rep. John Conyers was listed twice: a $50,000 payment in 2010 and a $27,111.75 payout in 2014. Former Rep. Blake Farenthold was tied to an $84,000 payout in 2014. And a 2017 case involving former Rep. Patrick Meehan resulted in $39,250 in severance pay.
As Newsmax reported, the Oversight Committee subpoenaed these records to compile a full accounting of settlements paid before a 2018 law ended the use of federal funds for such claims. Mace indicated she would release the records after victim and witness information was redacted.
In a post directed at taxpayers, Mace made her position plain. As Just The News reported, she wrote:
"You, the American people, paid for this. Taxpayer dollars were used to silence victims of sexual harassment by Members of Congress. We said we would get you names. Here they are, along with the amounts."
That line captures the core issue. For years, taxpayer money quietly settled claims against lawmakers while the public was kept in the dark about who was involved and how much was spent. The 2018 reform ended the practice of using federal funds for these settlements, but it did nothing to account for what had already been paid out, until now.
Mace's list did not arrive in a vacuum. Capitol Hill has faced mounting pressure in recent weeks to deal with misconduct in its own ranks, and the cases are not confined to one party.
California Democrat Eric Swalwell came under scrutiny last month after allegations of sexual misconduct involving former subordinates. One woman alleged Swalwell raped her when she was too intoxicated to consent, with the alleged incidents dating to 2019 and 2024. She was described as one of four women who made allegations against Swalwell. In April, Swalwell withdrew from his bid for California governor, saying he was "deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past" while calling the assault allegations "false allegations." Federal investigators have since moved to interview Swalwell's accusers, a development that could break open additional details about secret congressional settlements.
Texas Republican Tony Gonzales withdrew from his congressional reelection bid last month amid pressure over an admitted affair with a subordinate. The subordinate later died by suicide. The Gonzales case drew sharp attention to the power imbalance between members and their staff, and to the consequences that follow when those lines are crossed.
The House has also grappled with how to handle these cases procedurally. Expulsion resolutions have been introduced against multiple members, and the chamber has faced a high-stakes series of votes on whether to remove colleagues accused of serious personal misconduct.
Mace's push for accountability has not come without friction inside her own party. Her public feud with Rep. Cory Mills, a Florida Republican, escalated sharply last week during a hearing on Capitol Hill.
During a hearing on the military budget with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Mace used her opening remarks to go after Mills directly. She requested unanimous consent to enter documents into the congressional record, including what she described as a statement from Mills's first sergeant.
"The first is a statement from Cory Mills's first sergeant, attesting that his records of military service are falsified."
Mace followed that with a pointed declaration:
"An individual who steals the stories of dead or injured soldiers has no right to serve in this body, let alone on this committee."
Mills fired back. He called Mace's claims "patently false" and entered his own evidence into the record during his questioning time, referencing "military service documents, including [his] DD, 214 and verified awards, because the truth matters."
The dispute did not stop at military records. Mace introduced a resolution to expel Mills from the House of Representatives. Mills responded by filing his own resolution to expel Mace. A 2025 police report also surfaced in which Mills was accused by his then-girlfriend of grabbing her, shoving her, and pushing her out the door of his apartment. Mills denied the accusation.
The back-and-forth between two Republican members has turned a transparency push into an intra-party spectacle, raising questions about whether the focus on accountability will be sustained or consumed by personal rivalries.
Mace's disclosures fit within a broader institutional picture. As the New York Post reported, the House Ethics Committee published a historical list of 28 publicly disclosed sexual misconduct investigations involving House members dating back to 1976. The cases spanned both parties, 14 Democrats and 12 Republicans, and included resignations, censures, expulsions, and ongoing probes, including one involving Mills.
The committee stated that it "has a long history of investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by Members of the House, ranging from criminal sexual activity to behavior implicating civil employment discrimination laws and more general standards of conduct." It added that at least half of the probes occurred in the past decade, as the committee adopted what it called a "more aggressive and robust approach" to such allegations.
That framing suggests the institution recognizes the problem. But recognition and remedy are different things. For decades, the settlement system allowed members to resolve claims quietly, with taxpayer money, and without public disclosure. The 2018 reform closed the funding mechanism. It did not close the transparency gap, which is the gap Mace is now trying to fill.
Mace, who has described herself as a victim of sexual harassment, has also worked alongside Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Lauren Boebert on efforts to press for accountability related to the Epstein case. The House Oversight Committee's subpoena of Attorney General Pam Bondi over Epstein file releases reflected the same appetite for disclosure that now extends to Congress's own internal settlement records.
Mace's list covers nine cases and six former lawmakers or offices. But the full scope of the subpoenaed records has not been made public. It remains unclear exactly which documents were obtained, what additional names may appear, and whether any sitting members were involved in settlements that predate the 2018 reform.
The specific records subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee have not been described in detail. Nor has it been disclosed which police agency issued the 2025 report involving Mills, or what additional evidence Mace presented beyond the first sergeant's statement and the police report.
Mace is also running for governor of South Carolina, which gives her political incentive to stay in the headlines. She appeared at a South Carolina gubernatorial GOP candidate debate in Newberry on Wednesday, April 1, where she took questions from reporters. Whether her transparency campaign is driven by principle, ambition, or both, the facts she has put on the record are now public, and they belong to the taxpayers who funded the settlements.
Congress spent years paying off misconduct claims in the dark. Now that the receipts are out, the question is simple: what else is the institution still hiding?
